Many electronic chassis designs are modular in nature due to increases in the need for system density and quick serviceability. System designs such as blade server designs are modeled after modular networking chassis with individual network cards or other types of modular components. These modular designs have one large chassis with inner modules that slide out from the front or rear of the main chassis.
In some designs, several plug-in optoelectronic cards or other types of modules are interconnected according to a required connection scheme, using a backplane. In these designs, the backplane is provided as a connection point between the cards or other types of modules. For example, the backplane has front side blind mate optical connectors providing connection to the front side of the backplane, and rear side hand inserted optical connectors providing connection to the rear side of the backplane and extending outwardly from the rear surface. The connectors on both the front side and the rear side are designed to mate with the plug-in optoelectronic cards or other types of modules.
In using a backplane, the rear side of the backplane provides an interconnect from one card to another card through cables which have connector portions mating with rear side connectors. In order to connect several cards or other types of modules, multiple connectors of different types may be required on both sides of the backplane. Use of multiple cables results in ineffective utilization of space and makes the design of the interconnection module complicated and expensive.